


Overdue

by Fuoco



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Dark, Dragon Age Kink Meme, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Prison, Psychological Trauma, Redcliffe, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:52:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6976303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuoco/pseuds/Fuoco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You assume the figure is a corpse, when you first see it. Clothing likely ripped to shreds by the claws recently re-dead - the protestations that gave you pause to fight did cut off quite abruptly.<br/>Leliana is halfway through picking the lock before the body shifts - a turn of the head, a small glint in dead looking eyes, and a groan in a voice slightly too high for a full grown man - nothing at all really, but it resonates familiar.</p><p>(or "The Warden Arrives at Redcliffe nearly too late for one blood mage in particular.")</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overdue

**Author's Note:**

> For this prompt: http://dragonage-kink.livejournal.com/10371.html?thread=41840771#t41840771  
> "The Warden and pals find Jowan in the Redcliffe dungeon, but after a few rounds of torture he's not nearly as ambulatory or coherent as in canon. The Warden takes pity (or if a mage, goes "OMG JOWAN D:") and has another item added to their vast to-do list: namely, patch him up both physically and psychologically, possibly while hiding him from the Guerrins and distracting Knight-Commander Harrith with lyrium."
> 
> (Posted quite some time ago there, but might continue as part of a series.)

You assume the figure is a corpse, when you first see it. Clothing likely ripped to shreds by the claws recently re-dead - the protestations that gave you pause to fight did cut off quite abruptly.

  
Leliana is halfway through picking the lock before the body shifts - a turn of the head, a small glint in dead looking eyes, and a groan in a voice slightly too high for a full grown man - nothing at all really, but it resonates familiar.

  
Recognition strikes you and you nearly fall on newly weakened knees. Your grab the opened cage for support and kneel in a more controlled decent, which catches the attention of its occupant. Breathing, just barely. Enough to cry out accusingly, bitterly, when he notices your face.

  
“You.”  
Guilt dries any excuses right off your tongue. You begin to reach out to touch his cheek, compelled by the unreality of black bruises and gaunt cheeks on your old friend’s once-soft face. Jowan flinches slightly. It seems to be the most he can do.

  
“I thought you’d died,” You grip the filthy bars tightly instead of his narrow shoulders. “It’s been so long! I. Jowan. I-“

  
“No.” Jowan’s voice cracks, less like a teenage mage and more like a man who spent the year screaming. His dark, dull eyes focus for a moment with a thin skin of incredible rage over the wells of fear they seemed to have become. “I. will. never-”

  
“Jowan-“

  
“Kill me.” A thin smile tore at his dried lips while his limp eyes welled with water. “I won’t forgive you as long as I live, and I don’t want to.”

  
Your self-tolerance shatters. More than you wish you’d come to Redcliffe earlier – for there was nothing left to save here but a ghost town and a ghost castle and possibly the sleeping Earl of this ruined land somewhere upstairs. You wish you’d joined the Grey Wardens as a traitor to the circle rather than Jowan.  
His eyes fall closed with unconsciousness and you reach out recklessly to heal him with all of your mana. Redcliffe is lost, and so may be your friend.

But as the bruises on his skin heal a fraction of a shade, you think you might be able to fix at least this.

**Author's Note:**

> (Betraying Jowan was my first bad decision in Dragon Age. Hope you enjoyed this.)


End file.
